Serena
by sabotouri
Summary: "What are we going to do with a Centurion baby?"
1. Chapter 1

When the call came up, Kirk was sure that he had misunderstood. As he followed Bones off the bridge, he repeated the message aloud again.

"A Centurion escape pod was intercepted at 0900 hours, containing a singular infant," he mumbled, glancing sideways at the doctor, stoic and a little perturbed looking as always.

They turned the corner to the loading bay, where a small crowd was hovering over the oval shaped pod, a little larger than standard luggage case. They parted when the captain approached.

"I'll be damned," Kirk breathed, looking down into the pod where, nestled amongst unearthly silk blankets was a tiny, blond haired baby, who stared back at him with lavender eyes. He took a short step forward and crouched. "They really are beautiful."

The baby was, at most, a month old Bones estimated. The tiny tufts of hair that sloped around its face were soft and downy, still new. Bones stepped around Kirk and gently lifted the baby out of the capsule, much to Kirk's visible surprise.

"Have _you _ever held a baby before?" he grumped, wrapping the infant tighter in its swaddling. Kirk shook his head; of course Bones, a father, would act first. "Didn't think so."

Bones began to walk away from the pod, headed presumably towards the medical bay to have the child looked at. Kirk watched him until he turned the corner and then said to the group, "As you were. Return to your stations."

In pairs and trios, they dispersed, leaving behind only Uhura, who had watched the scene from a distance. She stood with her hands behind her back, looking eerily like Spock, and inclined her head towards Kirk, who sighed and shrugged.

"What are we going to do with a Centurion baby?" he asked. They fell in step, following Bones' path to medical. She shook her head.

"Aren't you a little more concerned as to why we have one in the first place? Centuria is a light year away, how on Earth did she end up here?"

Kirk stood to the side, allowing Uhura to enter the medical bay first, before following her in, his mind still processing.

"Wait, it's a girl?" he asked. Uhura rolled her eyes.

"Of course she's a girl. You're captain of a starship and you don't know gender distinguishing characteristics of non-Federation beings?"

"Well, the gender distinguishing characteristics I usually go by would be a little indecent to explore on an infant," he smirked, realizing too late that the statement was more creepy than witty. "So, uh, Bones… is she okay?"

Bones had laid the baby out on a biobed and was leaned over her, pressing on her chest and stomach lightly. When he moved to straighten, the baby reached out and grasped onto his Starfleet insignia.

"She's fine," he said, his voice softer than Kirk or Uhura had ever heard it. "And very smart."

He slid a hand under her head, the other under her back and picked her up, cradling her close to his chest. The baby surveyed his face intently, her pupils dilated. He half-smiled down at her, shifting her in his arms. "She looks like Joanna," he mumbled quietly.

"Don't all babies kind of look the same at that age?" Kirk asked, scratching the back of his head. Uhura and Bones glared at him. "What?"

"You should go back to the bridge, I'm sure you have something more important to do than provide asinine commentary," Bones said, his eyebrows narrowed. Kirk rolled his eyes.

"A sentient being of which we would not under normal circumstances have any contact with was just dumped on our back porch, don't you think there are some questions that have to be answered?"

"Do you think she can answer them?" Bones asked rhetorically. Kirk considered him for a minute through squinted eyes before nodding. "I'll let you know if her condition changes."

"Lieutenant Uhura, please come with me, I'll need you to start listening for relevant transmissions. Try not to go soft on me, Bones."

Bones waited until the pair had left before sitting down on the biobed and stretching his legs out in front of him. The medical bay was blissfully empty today.

He pulled his legs up and gently laid her across his thighs, her head cradled in between his knees. She stared back at him and for a fleeting second, he felt a pang of homesickness for his daughter.

"She's gorgeous," Christine said, leaning against the edge of the bed. Bones nodded, running his fingers across the baby's crown. "How old do you think she is? Four or five weeks?"

"At most," he replied, wrapping the baby up and handing her to Christine, who accepted her gladly. "Centurions can be hard to read though, they age in an odd way."

"I'm not familiar with the race," she said, not taking her eyes off the infant.

"They are immortal, said to be the most beautiful creatures in the galaxy. I've never seen one before this one. They are genetically very similar to Orions."

"Like sweet Gaila," she cooed, talking more to the baby than Bones. Bones nodded.

"Like Gaila, yes. Centurions are frighteningly smart. She tracks as well as most infants four times her age. She spotted and grabbed my pin without hesitation. She hasn't cried yet."

"Perhaps nothing is wrong," Christine suggested, handing the baby back to Bones, who laid her back across his knees. "Why do you situate her like that?"

"I sat with Joanna like this. I could write with one hand and comfort her with the other, it's how I finished med school with a newborn," he said, almost offhand. "Jocelyn was in the hospital for two months after she was born, I'm pretty good with infants. Teenagers, I know nothing about. Sometimes I think it's a blessing that she's on Earth with her mother."

"Leonard, I doubt you ever think that's a blessing," Christine said gently. He laughed a little, the corner of his mouth twitching into a tiny grin. "I'm going down to Engineering to check on Commander Scott. He thinks he has blood rust, though I suspect he simply fell asleep against a water pipe and ended up with a transfer burn. Will you be okay here?"

Bones nodded. "If I need you, I'll call you."

Christine smiled and had almost made it to the door when she stopped and turned.

"Leonard?"

He nodded, extending his forefinger for the baby to grasp.

"This is a good look for you."


	2. Chapter 2

Kirk stabbed at a cherry tomato with his fork, sighing and staring off into the mess hall. He hadn't seen Bones in almost twenty-four hours and every time he tried to go down to medical to check on him, he was tasked with something else.

They had no leads on where the baby had come from. They had intercepted her with only a few minutes notice and had not been able to contact Centuria; it was simply too far away.

Theories and postulations floated around the ship in plenty: she was a refugee, sent to be saved by her parents; she had inadvertently become a hostage of the Enterprise; she was a sign.

"Any new ideas?" Sulu asked, sitting down with Chekov next to Kirk. Kirk shrugged, chasing an olive around his plate. "Are you even looking anymore?"

"Of course I am," Kirk snapped, leaning back in his chair. Chekov and Sulu exchanged glances before starting on their food. "I don't want her on the ship any longer than necessary. We don't have the resources to care for her and I hardly think that the Federation will look kindly on our having her."

"'S not like you had much choice," Chekov said through a mouthful of rice. Sulu wrinkled his nose, causing Chekov to swallow loudly. "We could not just leave her out there."

Kirk knew he was right. Starfleet code stated that anybody seeking asylum on a Federation planet or Federation ship would have it, with due cause, though it was proving hard to distinguish due cause with an infant who couldn't even raise her own head yet.

Kirk opened his mouth to say something when Bones say down next to him, yawning and stretching his arms above his head.

"What's on your shirt?" Kirk asked, leaning away from him. Bones looked down and shrugged.

"Blood, vomit, spit up, snot and I think shit, but I can't be sure. Not that much different than usual," he grumbled, snatching the roll of Kirk's plate. "The baby is fine, sleeping now."

They ate in silence for a while (Chekov less so, being likened to a cow with cud several times) until Chekov asked Bones if he had a plan for the baby from that point.

"I was going to take her back to my quarters with me when my shift is over," Bones said simply. Everyone looked immediately at Kirk, who was staring open mouthed at the doctor, a half chewed piece of sandwich obvious in his cheek.

"What?" he asked, swallowing and leaning in. Bones rolled his eyes.

"Dammit Jim, she's a newborn, she can't hang around sick people all day. She can come with me until Christine or Uhura get off and then they can take her."

"Why you, though? I mean, surely there's someone on the ship with a better bedside manner than you," Kirk grinned, his smile faltering as Bones shot him an angry glance. "Alright, sorry."

Kirk was left sitting alone when Bones, Chekov and Sulu left to return to work. He was not looking forward to returning to his quarters.

* * *

Kirk could hear Bones talking softly as he stopped just inside the airlock to pull his shoes off.

"… mitigating fractures around the crania majora, pupils fixed and dilated. Injuries indicated subdural hematoma. Petichia is concurrent with strangulation."

Bones was sitting in bed, dictating charts from earlier that day, the baby laid out next to him. He held a bottle of a dark green liquid in his right hand and tabbed through the PADD with his left.

"A little night reading?" Kirk asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. Bones didn't look up.

"Some of us have to bring work home at the end of the day," he said offhandedly, glancing down at the baby who had fallen asleep while nursing, a single drop of the emerald liquid rolling down her cheek. Bones wiped it away with the edge of her blanket and set the bottle on the nightstand.

Kirk stared at the baby for a long minute before noticing that her alabaster skin was prickled with goose bumps. He slid the blanket she was laying on out from underneath her and gently tucked her in. Bones watched the gesture out of the corner of his eye.

"Lights, fifty percent. Bones, why is she here?" Kirk asked, his voice low. Bones held his gaze, shrugging noncommittally.

"I didn't feel comfortable leaving her with anyone else. I need to be able to keep an eye on her."

Though not completely satisfied with this response, Kirk chose to say nothing.

"Her name is Serena," Bones said, setting the PADD down and turning to look at Kirk. The captain must have looked confused, because Bones continued, pointing to the hem of her blanket, where embroidered in light green thread was the name Serena.

"Well, that's more than we knew six hours ago," Kirk sighed. "So, Serena the Centurion, what are you doing aboard the USS Enterprise?"

Not surprisingly, the sleeping baby didn't respond.

"Now, now. Listen here, I am captain of this ship and I demand you tell me why you're here."

Silence.

Kirk smirked at Bones, who rolled his eyes. "We could have a hard time with this one."

"I'm glad you find this so comical," Bones drawled, sliding down beneath the sheets and placing a hand on Serena's stomach.

"Wait, she's sleeping _here_?" Kirk asked, taken aback. Bones grunted.

"Do you see a crib anywhere?"

"You can't sleep with a baby in the bed, what if you roll over on her? The last thing we need is dead Centurion-"

"Jim, I'm not going to suffocate her. We slept with Joanna until she started kicking us in the face."

"Bones," Kirk said gently. "That's not Joanna. Look, I think it's noble that you want to take care of this baby, but she's not yours. You have no obligation to do all of this. Why don't you just take her back to Christine, we'll all sleep better-"

"Goodnight, Jim," Bones yawned, clearly not willing to discuss the matter any further.

Gathering an extra blanket from the closet, Kirk begrudgingly laid down in the armchair across from the bed and settled in for a fitful nights sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

When Serena woke up at 5:30 AM, six hours before Kirk had to be on duty, the captain was seriously reconsidering his stance on the marooning of children.

Climbing out of the chair, every bone in his body cracking and creaking, he padded over to the bed where the tiny baby squirmed and chirped. She was the most curious thing he'd ever seen; she'd yet to cry, just make funny little sounds and flail around a lot.

He leaned over her and tilted his head. The starlight filtering in through the picture window illuminated her soft, delicate features and twinkled in her lavender eyes, peering up at him with great interest and regard.

"You will regret waking up this early when you're my age," Kirk said. She blinked and smiled. He sighed and picked her up.

"Hey Bones," he said, nudging the doctor with his knee. Bones grabbed his calf with remarkably fast reflexes and sat up.

"Put her down," he said, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, pulling himself into a sitting position and yawning. Kirk jerked his leg back and handed the baby back to Bones.

"I wasn't going to hurt her or anything-"

"I know that you idiot, she was dripping on me."

Kirk looked down at his shirt and gagged; she had indeed, been dripping. Pulling his clothes off quickly, Kirk practically ran into the bathroom and dove into the shower. Bones rolled his eyes.

"It's hard to tell which one of you is the bigger baby."

Bones changed the baby's wet diaper and clothes, stripped the sheets on the bed, flipped the mattress and put dry sheets on. It was a routine he remembered all too well from Joanna's childhood and still, after fourteen years, could do it with one hand.

Kirk emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later, scrubbing his face with a towel. He glanced sideways at Bones, who was stretched out on his stomach and propped up on his forearms, Serena in between them, reading over her head and balancing a bottle with his chin.

Though he couldn't get over how incredibly bizarre it was to see (Bones was, after all, the town grump), there was something reassuring in the emergence of a more paternal side to his partner. They had never once talked about children for them; honestly, they'd never once even labeled their relationship.

"You are needed on the bridge," Bones mumbled. Kirk dressed and sat on the edge of the bed. "There is a communication from Centuria. I'll see you later."

Kirk frowned and snatched the reader out of Bones' hand. Bones sighed and turned his head, catching the almost empty bottle with his right hand.

"What?"

"We haven't seen each other-"

"Oh my God," Bones groaned, turning back to stare at the headboard. Jocelyn used to pull this same stunt weekly. "I'm busy, Jim. You are too."

"It's her-"

"It's not her, she's been on the ship for three days. Us not seeing each other has nothing to do with her."

The discussion was verbatim the on he'd had with his ex-wife. Kirk sighed and ran his hand down the back of Bones' head, resting it on the nape of his neck.

"Fine, I'll see you later."

* * *

When Kirk walked on to the bridge, the first thing he noticed was how eerily quiet it was. Though fully staffed, not a word was said.

"Lieutenant Uhura, I was told we received a communication from Centuria?"

"Yes captain," Uhura said, her voice lofty. Kirk looked around. His entire crew was wearing a look of dazed stupidity.

"Hello Captain Kirk."

Kirk's head snapped up. How he had not noticed the woman on the screen when he walked in, he didn't know, because she was the most beautiful being he had ever seen.

"Uh-"

"Captain Kirk, my name is Sololá Fortescue. I am Centuria's ambassador to the Federation."

"I was unaware that Centuria had an ambassador to the Federation," Kirk said, an odd calm washing over him. He sat in his chair and leaned back. Chekov and Sulu, both lax in their chairs, wore matching expressions of goofy admiration.

"We do not have a need to communicate often," Sololá smiled, her teeth sparkling and perfect. Kirk nodded dumbly. "Though I am sorry to disappoint, there is no infant missing from our planet."

"What? Oh, right," Kirk sputtered, remembering why they were talking in the first place. "Well, that's curious."

"Are you quite sure she is Centurion?"

"Chekov, please show Ms. Fortescue a holo of the baby. Chekov… PAVEL."

Chekov jumped like he'd been punched before busying himself at his console. A hologram of Serena floated in front of him a second later. Solora inclined her head slightly and thought for a minute before fixing her gaze on Kirk again.

"She is assuredly Centurion, but she is not ours," she said smoothly, her smile fading. "Captain, if you have come into a great fortune such as a Centurion infant, I would suggest that you make for your home and tell no one else along the way that-"

She stopped speaking suddenly, her eyes widening.

"You there, Vulcan," she said, her voice sharp. She tipped her chin towards Spock, who peered around Hannity without standing. "What are you doing on this ship?"

"Honestly, can we go anywhere without finding someone who wants to kill you?" Kirk groaned, turning in his chair to look at his first officer. Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Ambassador Fortescue, I assure you that my presence on the Enterprise is noble-"

"Captain Kirk, I must bid you farewell, I cannot associate with a low class being such as a Vulcan. I believe that your intentions are well, but until that man is no longer a part of your crew, we will not speak again. Goodbye."

It only took a second for the serene environment on the bridge to lapse back into work mode.

"What was that about?" Sulu asked, rubbing his hands over his face. Spock was silent for a long time before standing.

"Centuria is no friend of Vulcan. I'm sure they were quite thrilled to hear of its destruction. However, I have never encountered such open hostility before, it is truly puzzling."

"Do you know why that baby is here?" Kirk asked, narrowing his eyebrows. Spock shook his head.

"I assure you Jim, I have no desire for an enemy to be in my immediate-"

"She's a baby, Spock," Uhura interrupted. "She's not your enemy."

"Nonetheless, I do not know why she is here," Spock said, the slightest flash of indignance crossing his still face.

"Where is she anyway?" Uhura asked. Kirk was giving orders to return to Mars until they were hailed somewhere else.

"With Bones," he said, almost as an afterthought. "Sulu, take us past Venus as close as possible, I was to try and hook up with the Mandaga and grab another hand for medical."

"Aye, Captain."

"Keep her steady, I'm going back to my quarters until eleven. No point in being here when I'm not being paid for it," Kirk grinned. He ignored the eye rolls he got from his crew.

Back in his quarters a few minutes later, Kirk was a little disappointed to find Bones asleep again and even more alarmed to find the baby missing.

"Bones," he hissed, shaking the doctor, terrified he would roll over and find the infant dead underneath him. "Bones!"

"What in God's name do you want?" Bones groaned, putting his arm over his eyes.

"Where's Serena?"

"Christine took her so I could sleep, Jesus. I should have known you'd make that impossible. What time is it?"

"0645," Kirk replied, toeing his boots off and crawling into bed. He wrapped his arms around Bones' waist, his fingers slipping under the waistband of Bones' pants a little. The shiver that lit through Bones' body didn't go unnoticed.

He turned over and pinned Kirk down by the shoulders, dipping his head so that their noses touched.

"I'm exhausted, Jim," he said, his voice more tired than Kirk had ever heard. "Please, just sleep." With a sigh, he stole a kiss.

Of course, they didn't sleep.


End file.
